Can't identify hop seed plants! Any help would be great.

[Sinqnew]

Hey there guys! New here. Just found this is the only place where I could find any information of growing hops for fun... not actually going to brew. I know you're not supposed to grow them from seeds, but I'm literally doing it for the asthetic and not for brewing persay. Rhimzones are hard to come by in Canada ATM, as they're not in season. So I thought this could be a fun experiment until they finally ship some to me next month.

Thing is... I ordered seeds from several makers to play it safe, and its really cheap anyways. I got some from China, and I'm starting to think they are not hops... These are the seeds and sprouted plants that came from them -

I have lots of other seeds from germany, I planted half of them to give it a try... and the other half I put in wet paper towel and a clean ziplock bag to keep in the fridge to simulate winter. The german seeds I planted haven't sprouted like the chinese ones... so I'm suspicious if its just a bunch of weeds growing haha.

These are the german seeds -

They might just be deprived of light... I got a new plant light to help them out now... I still don't know if they're actually hops but its not a huge loss. Any tips or help on where I could get legit good seeds possibly would be awesome too... so far I've gotten all my seed supplies for my plants on amazon and it's been great.

Thanks for any help! The plants might just be too young to tell... it's just the fact almost all of them grew. 3 days after planting the seeds in the soil too... Whereas the german seeds I've planted have been in for 4 days and nothing so far.

 

[B-Hoppy]

The German seeds sure do look like hops but they'll need quite a few weeks of cold/damp stratification before they'll germinate. The seedlings in the top pic look like some sort of legume, definitely not hops.

 

[Sinqnew]

Awesome, thanks for the help! I had a feeling they weren't hops.

I'll keep a eye on the hops I have in damp ziplock bags at fridge temperatures and keep them from getting mold. The german seeds I planted I'll see if anything happens... I planted around 40 so who knows, maybe one might prop up!

 

[DarkCoder]

Top picture looks like clover to me.

 

[Apimyces]

Yea, definately not hops. Probably a legume, possibly clover.

The seeds you show look like hops, though. Do you have pictures of the seed you planted? Clover seeds (and legumes in general) are kidney shaped, not spherical. Clover seeds are much smaller than hop seeds.

Either you got incorrect seeds, or your soil is heavily contaminated with clover seeds. Given one plant per cell, right in the middle, I'm gonna assume you planted those there, though.

Don't let anyone tell you not to grow anything from seeds. That's often the most fun to grow from seeds, though the most challenging.

 

[Sinqnew]

Awesome, thanks guys. Yeah I planted them in single cell... I ordered a bunch on amazon and those ones came from china. So I was like... well these look iffy, but I gave it a shot. I'll let them grow for now and see.

I got around 80 german hop seeds which are legit, so I am putting 50% into the fridge in sterile ziplock bags... in damp paper towels. I'll change out the bags every once and a while to avoid mold.

The other half... I followed original instructions and soaked them in 24 hours and planted them into the little soil pellets. I have them in a nice humid mini greenhouse, tons of light and watered. So even if only 1 of the 40 sprout... thats still awesome.

I wasen't too worried about people telling me not to do it... as long as I said " Hey I'm doing this for fun " haha. Its totally understandable they are warning un-knowing folk who want local brewing but don't realize you can't do that with seeds.

Thanks for the info so far guys, these forums are seriously the ONLY information I was able to get on growing hops from seeds for fun.

 

[Sinqnew]

Oh and I forgot, nah the soil isnt contaminated. In a 20-story apartment thats indoors, the soil is bought in store and I haven't seen clovers spawning out of the rest of the dirt pots I put it in. So I definitely think those are the Chinese knock-off seeds

 

[Apimyces]

Well, even purchased soil can have varying levels of weed seeds. Just not THAT many.

And you can use those hops for brewing beer. It's just that there's no telling what you'll get. Even if you knew the parent hop, the offspring would more likely be dissimilar than similar to it. There are decent odds it wouldn't be anything special, but then again, every new great hop starts from a seed.

 

[B-Hoppy]

Rhimzones are hard to come by in Canada ATM, as they're not in season.

This is kind of old and I know there's more suppliers available as time has gone on: http://www.krisconstable.com/buy-hop-rhizomes-canada/

You can also check here for help a little closer to you: http://www.ontariohopgrowersassociation.ca/